Conquest Earth (2024)

He sat down in the command chair, suddenly feeling every one of his fifty years.

Vell blinked. “Sir? We won.”

Then he added, so softly only the stars could hear: Conquest Earth

“Order the flag to half-mast,” he said quietly. He sat down in the command chair, suddenly

On the screen below, a single image flickered—a drone feed from what remained of a city called Geneva. A child, no older than six, stood alone in a crater. She held a torn flag in one hand and a broken toy in the other. She wasn’t crying. She was staring directly up at the sky. At the Odyssey . no older than six

“Conquest,” he whispered to himself, tasting the word like ash. “We wanted to conquer Earth.”